LITTLE KIDS LEARNING ABOUT SEX

How young is too young to learn about sex?

There's nothing that woks up Americans more than talking about sex. We think about it alot (teenagers the most). Many of us do it a lot (usually by ourselves). But we just don't like to talk about it. And no kid likes to talk about it with his or her parents.

Well, in Helena, Montanta a school board meeting earlier this week found parents expressing their concerns -- and support -- over a proposal to offer sex education to children as young as five years of age. According to the approximately 60 page draft proposal, beginning in kindergarten, school nurses will teach kids terms such as "nipple, breast, penis, scrotum and uterus." And that's just in kindergarten.

Once the kids get to first grade, they get introduced to alternative lifestyles: they're taught that sexual relations can happen between two men or two women.

And by the time the kids are just 10 years old, they learn the hardcore stuff: they are taught that intercourse can be done in all kinds of ways: vaginally, orally or through "anal penetration." Who knew?

Watching this story unfold in the mainstrem media, you almost start to believe that the kids in Helena will soon be substituting their protractors for pimp clothes and porno movies.

But the kids are also taught "that the media usually does not portray sexuality and relationships realistically ." (Page 19). Kindergartners thru third graders are taught "that child sexual abuse is when someone (stranger or someone you know) touches the private parts of his/her body without a health or hygiene reason and the child is never at fault." Third graders thru sixth graders are taught to "recognize that sexual abuse happens, even though many people do not want to talk about it and is most often committed by someone that the child knows." Seventh thru ninth graders learn that "sexual harassment is unwanted and uninvited sexual attention such as teasing, touching, or taunting, sexting and is against the law." (Page 23).

Of course, this stuff isn't what you're hearing about in the media. They just keep talking about nipples and anal penetration.

As for the anxiety and fear that this story creates? Well that's easy to understand. Most of us don't like the idea that the precious little minds of our children are being fouled with all of this sex talk. Others think that parents should be the sole information givers on the subject.

But you see, kids grow up and encounter this stuff just the same. They don't freak out - it's the adults who freak out. And we should stop freaking out long enough to see the benefits of teaching our kids about sex. It's not dirty or dangerous to teach them. And it's not dirty or dangerous if the teachers teach them too.

I say, teach the kids.Teach them when they're young. Keep teaching them. And make every effort to prepare them for the very complicated world they are now inheriting. Remember, most of them are just one click of a mouse away from seeing things that are dirty and dangerous. And that's why we should think first about the benefits of education - not fear the words used in the teaching.